Ian Blackford has accused Alex Salmond of trying to "stir the pot" in the SNP leadership contest.
The former First Minister said yesterday that Humza Yousaf, one of three candidates aiming to replace Nicola Sturgeon, had skipped a 2014 vote at Holyrood on same-sex marriage due to "religious pressure".
The social views of the next SNP leader have become a key talking point after Kate Forbes said she would have voted against the legislation if she had been an MSP at the time.
Blackford, the party's former Westminster leader, said today that Yousaf had already reaffirmed his support for gay marriage and "equality for everybody throughout Scotland".
Yousaf, a junior minister in 2014, voted in favour of the bill at Stage 1 but missed the final stage due after arranging a meeting with the Pakistani Government.
Salmond, who led the Scottish Government at the time, told Sky News: "My memory is that I was contacted 10 days or so before the vote, when the vote was known, and told that Humza was arranging a ministerial appointment.”
Asked if Yousaf skipped the vote due to "religious pressure", Salmond stated: "That’s my recollection."
Blackford told Times Radio: "I think what you see is Alex Salmond, as a former member of the SNP, trying to stir the pot to some extent, isn't it?
"Joe Fitzpatrick, who had responsibility for politics within the SNP as a business manager effectively, has made it clear that at no point was there a request for Humza to be slipped from voting, he voted in stage one of that and it went through Parliament, he's put out a statement reaffirming his support for gay marriage for equality for everybody throughout Scotland."
Yousaf said his non vote was being “dragged up” for political reasons by “people who are supporting other candidates”.
He said: “I believe that people’s marriage, if they are gay and they are married, that their marriage is no more inferior, or worth less, than my marriage as a heterosexual individual."
Yousaf said he missed the vote over the case of a Scottish citizen on death row in Pakistan.
He claimed: “There was a series of meetings taking place between myself and the Pakistani government to get this individual back home. One of those meetings was during the stage three vote.
"Let me be unequivocal about it - if I was there I would have voted for it. That was well known at the time."
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